02 January 2018

The Baghdad Post

Iran restricted access to several social media apps Sunday and warned that anti-government protesters who cause public disorder will 'pay the price' after three days of demonstrations across the country, CNN reported.

Instagram and Telegram have been temporarily 'restricted' in order to ensure calm and security, state-run media outlet IRIB reported Sunday.

Social media has been vital resource for Iranians participating in the protests -- described as the largest public display of discontent since the 2009 Green Movement in Iran.

While independent media coverage from inside the country has been limited, protesters have used apps like Telegram, which offers public channels for users in addition to encrypted messaging, to share information and videos of protests and clashes. Official media outlets have provided few details about the protests.

Telegram's CEO tweeted that Iranian authorities had blocked access to Telegram for 'the majority of Iranians' after the company refused to shut down peaceful protesting channels.

Iran blocks Instagram and Telegram apps, warns protesters will 'pay the price' for unrest

Iran on Sunday blocked Instagram and the messaging app Telegram, official media reported, after three days of escalating anti-government unrest.

Two demonstrators were killed over the weekend, an official said, and protests continued in the capital, Tehran, and other cities on Sunday. Local media showed images of police firing a water cannon at protesters in central Tehran.

The move to block the social media apps was aimed at blunting the protests, which are the largest in Iran since an uprising over disputed election results shook the country eight years ago. The demonstrations appear to have caught Iran's leadership off guard, and President Hassan Rouhani was expected to address the nation on Sunday night.

About 200 people were arrested in Tehran on Saturday, local media reported, quoting officials. Authorities were "temporarily" blocking Instagram and Telegram, social media apps that are popular with Iranians, to "maintain peace," state television said Sunday. Many demonstrators had used the apps to share and upload videos from the protests.

Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov wrote on Twitter that Iran was "blocking access to Telegram for the majority of Iranians after our public refusal to shut down . . . peacefully protesting channels."

Iranian authorities warned protesters after a night of attacks on government buildings and confrontations with police that they would 'pay a price' for breaking the law. The government has a history of brutally repressing unauthorized protests and political dissent.

"Those who damage public property and create disorder are accountable before the law and must pay the price," Interior Minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli said Sunday, according to state media.

An official in western Iran confirmed the deaths of two demonstrators who protesters said had been shot. The official deputy governor of Lorestan province, Habibollah Khojastehpour, suggested that they had been shot either by "foreign agents" or by Sunni militants who he claimed infiltrated the area.

"No bullets were shot from police and security forces at the people," Khojastehpour said Sunday on state television, the Associated Press reported. President Trump also commented on the unrest, saying Sunday on Twitter that the "USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!"

The demonstrations, which began Thursday, were sparked by economic woes but swiftly expanded to target a system that many protesters have said is corrupt and incapable of reform. In stunning scenes, protesters were seen chanting, "Down with the dictator!" as they tore down posters of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, in central Tehran.

Protesters from Kermanshah in the west to the holy city of Qom in the north and Ahvaz southwest of the capital marched Saturday in defiance of authorities, according to footage circulated online. Some of those images could not be confirmed.

"Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism," Trump said Sunday. "Looks like they will not take it any longer."

Rouhani had yet to address the nation. Reports in local media that he planned to give a speech Sunday were quickly denied.

Both reformists and conservatives struggled to respond to the demonstrations with a unified message. Each side has blamed the other, while the camps are internally split over the legitimacy of the protests.

Allies of Rouhani, including Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, initially suggested that his political opponents had orchestrated the demonstrations.

Rouhani has come under fire for a perceived failure to deliver on key economic promises he made after reaching a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. International sanctions on Iran were lifted as part of the deal.

Iran's economy has indeed grown, and the International Monetary Fund has forecast real GDP growth reaching 4.2 percent in 2017-2018. But that boost has largely been due to renewed oil exports, and growth unrelated to the oil sector has lagged significantly.

"The trickle-down economics, there's no sign of it," said Alex Vatanka, an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington. Indeed, inflation has crept up to nearly 10 percent this year, and the cost of basic foodstuffs has risen, economists say.

"This is a very sensitive moment for Rouhani," Vatanka said. "Here's a guy who basically came into the presidency as someone who was going to be the champion of the reform cause in Iran.

"But these protests show that he's not a champion of the people," Vatanka said. "And Iranians feel like they've been played."

Demonstrations In Iran Continue And Trump Assure Iranians Rights For Changing The Regime

Dubai, Paris, Berlin, AFP, 31 December 2017 - Demonstrations in Iran continue for the third day in a row in protests against economic difficulties and corruption of the Iranian regime, where Iranian riot police shot and killed two protesters and arrested dozens in Dorud, Lorestan Province, according to world news agencies.

United States President Donald Trump said yesterday regarding these demonstrations that the people of this country want change, assuring that repressive regimes will not last forever.

Vice President of the United Sates Mike Pence tweeted today, 'I stand with peaceful protestors in Iran who are calling for freedom and we condemn the arrests of innocents. The time has come for the regime in Tehran to end terrorist activities, corruption, and its disregard for human rights''.

It is noteworthy that the rate of unemployment in Iran rose to 12.4% in the current fiscal year, while the annual inflation rate increased by about 8%, and the lack of some food commodities has led to high prices.

- Demonstrations in Paris and Berlin -

Dozens of Iranian opponents demonstrated in Paris and Berlin in solidarity with demonstrations in Iran over the past two days to protest rising prices and corruption.

In Paris, some 40 people from the Iranian community gathered near the Iranian embassy on Friday to demand specially an end to the interference in Syria and Lebanon.

'One of repeated demands in all cities is to abandon Syria and not to intervene in Lebanon and Gaza,' said Afshin Alawi, a member of the Paris-based National Council for Resistance of Iran to France Press Agency.

He added that the recent demonstrations include 'a broader base in the Iranian society, the middle class and largely the unemployed, and hungry Iranians who suffered economically from the consequences of corruption.'

In Berlin, hundreds of opponents to the Iranian regime gathered in front of the Iranian embassy on Friday to demand the immediate release of demonstrators detained in Iran, according to police.

Iran, isolated internationally and pursued by international sanctions for its sensitive nuclear activities, witnessed protests on Thursday and Friday in several cities, particularly in Mashhad, Iran's second city.

Boris Johnson expresses concern over events in Iran

London, Riyadh Daily, December 31, 2017 - British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson expressed his country's concern over events in Iran.

According to his official Twitter account, Johnson said: 'We are watching events in Iran with concern. It is vital that Iranian citizens should have the right to demonstrate peacefully'. 

©  EsinIslam.Com

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